My account

Account links

What You Need to Know

What You Need to Know is a series of in-depth sessions exploring the music being performed at Southbank Centre.

These study days take place in advance of the concert performances at Southbank Centre and are designed to deepen the audience experience, whether you’re a seasoned concertgoer or new to classical music.

Southbank Centre's Director of Music Gillian Moore leads a group of speakers who include broadcasters, writers and academics, all of whom have been carefully selected for their in-depth knowledge and expertise.

This series grew from the feedback we received in our award-winning The Rest Is Noise festival, where attendees told us that taking part in talks and events deepened their experience of hearing the music in concert. You now have the opportunity to enrich your concert-going experience all year round.

Choose a What You Need to Know session because you’d like to find out more about a piece of music that is unfamiliar to you. Come along because you know the music already, but would like to deepen your knowledge, or book the whole series as an exciting and engaging way to do a course in classical music in the context of world-class performances.

share this

Members get priority

For your best chance to secure tickets for the biggest names when they go on sale, join now as a Member.